Victim of fatal drive-by shooting on San Lorenzo Boulevard recalled as 'bright, flirtatious and well-dressed'

SANTA CRUZ — The morning after a 12-year-old boy was gunned down as he walked home from practicing football Wednesday evening, his relatives gathered outside the Bixby Street home where he'd lived to grieve and share their memories.

Meanwhile, police were continuing to investigate whether a van found burning Thursday morning may be connected to the shooting.

“He'd light up the room,” said Brenda Gomez, the cousin of murder victim Joey Mendoza. “He's a bright kid.”

Gomez described Joey as being flirtatious and girl-crazy, and into his hair and clothes.

“He'd recently started playing football and was looking forward to his first game Saturday,” Gomez said.

Police could not confirm or deny the teen's name Thursday, but said the youth was involved with gangs. Mendoza was shot twice in the back as he walked along San Lorenzo Boulevard to his Bixby Street home around 8 p.m. the night before.

“We've have multiple contacts with him for gang-related activity,” Deputy Chief Rick Martinez of the Santa Cruz Police Department said.

His family disputes that the teen was involved with gangs, and said he wasn't that kind of kid.

“He wasn't — he's close to family,” Gomez said. “We were around him a lot.”

Another cousin, Araceli Reyes, said “he was not in a gang.”

Martinez said the boy was clearly at risk, and he'd even been invited to join the department's PRIDE (Personally Responsible Individual Development in Ethics) program. Martinez said having this happen to a kid that officers had tried to help is upsetting.

“We're reassessing to determine if our outreach efforts are as effective as they could be,” Martinez said.

Mendoza had been receiving tutoring and life-coaching through the county Office of Education for a few months, according to Deputy Superintendent Bryan Wall. Employees there also had been helping him get involved with a football team.

“The people working with him felt he'd come a long way in a short time,” said Wall.

Wall said Mendoza's football coach had told him the teen was a very good athlete.

“He was really dedicated to football,” said Wall.

Mendoza lived at the multifamily residence on Bixby Street with his grandmother, his cousins said. Thursday morning, his grieving mother, Irma Flores, pulled up to the makeshift memorial set up on the corner of San Lorenzo Boulevard and Bixby Street, sobbing as she kneeled by her son's photograph and several candles. She was too distraught to speak to reporters and her relatives held her as she cried.

Gomez had strong words for whoever shot her cousin.

“They have no heart,” she said. “A 13-year-old? Come on!”

CONTINUED INVESTIGATION

Police are seeking a black Lexus with silver lettering and a white van with the license plate 6NW634. The van had been reported stolen from Amesti Road on Wednesday morning. An all-county Project ROPE was initiated for the vehicles. Police said a light-skinned Latino was seen getting out of the van and into the black Lexus before the Lexus took off toward the Boardwalk.

The California Highway Patrol was investigating reports of a white van on fire on Larkin Valley Road and Mar Monte Avenue on Thursday morning.

Martinez of the Santa Cruz Police Department said Thursday that officers were working to determine whether that van was the one involved with the shooting. The van had been stripped of its VIN and license plate before being set on fire, he said.

He said police had received varying reports about how many people were in the vehicle from which shots were fired, as well as varying descriptions of the suspects and the car itself.

“We do believe there's a direct correlation to recent gang violence” in South County, Martinez said, declining to elaborate on specific incidents.

“We've also been pulling a lot of guns off the street recently,” he said.

Martinez said that police had been chasing gang members throughout the county Wednesday night as part of its investigation.

“There are a substantial amount of moving parts” to this case, he said.

GANG VIOLENCE

Watsonville Police Chief Manny Solano said Thursday his department is doing everything it can to curb a “surge” in gang violence.

Next week, Solano will have an emergency data sharing meeting with the county gang task force, his internal gang task force and others involved in gang suppression and enforcement in an effort to identify early offenders who might fall victim to gang crime.

“We want to see what the trends are,” Solano said. “They change from month to month depending on who's on the streets calling the shots. We gather everything we can from jails and on the streets.”

Gang issues are a major part of law enforcement's work throughout the county.

“From a countywide position, we have a put a lot of energy in the Santa Cruz County Criminal Justice Council that was started up again this year,” Solano said.

Solano plans to increase patrols and focus on the more active gang members in the community.

As for what's sparked the uptick in gang crime, Solano said there are a host of possibilities including retaliation from previous crimes and influences from gang members on the street and those behind bars.

He did note that some of the offenders are “a little younger, which is causing some concern. It could be older gang members influencing younger ones” or kids trying to get out of the gang and therefore becoming a target. “Or it could be just blatant turf wars, gang-on-gang activity.”

Mendoza was the second young teen to be killed in the county in recent months.

A 14-year-old boy, Jesse Lopez, was shot and killed near Mount Madonna in December. The high school freshman and a friend had taken a ride from some other people to go socialize. The car drove to a turnout on Hecker Pass Road. Another car arrived, and someone inside shot Lopez and his friend. Lopez died at the scene but his friend was able to call for help. Two men, 19-year-old David Moreno Sanchez and 18-year-old Alexis Alejandro Rodriguez, have been charged with murder, while two others, Juan Soto Gonzalez, 22; and 20-year-old Carlos Valencia, are charged with being accessories. All four are charged with gang participation and face a preliminary hearing in September.

Santa Cruz police ask anyone with information on Mendoza's shooting to call the anonymous tip line at 420-5995 or leave a tip at www.santacruzpolice.com or on its cellphone application at http://m.santacruzpolice.com.

MARCH 1: Nathan Connally, 19, was shot about 2:30 a.m. near Dover and Soquel drives in Live Oak. He stumbled to an apartment at 2500 Soquel Drive and died there minutes later, according to sheriff's deputies. Authorities released a surveillance video that showed Connally walking with another man before the shooting. That man, who has not been identified, is not a suspect in the case. Deputies have not said what motivated the shooting. No one has been arrested. Connally lived in Santa Cruz.

MARCH 31: Brandon Gil, 21, fought with 43-year-old Frank Garcia outside a sports bar on the 500 block of Main Street in Watsonville. Garcia, Gil and Gil's friend, Ricardo Flores, were stabbed. Gil died in a hospital hours later. Watsonville police said in May that Gil initiated the attack on Garcia and the District Attorney's Office ruled it ‘justifiable homicide'. Prosecutors filed no charges.

APRIL 3: Rafael Cendejas, 42, was shot around 6 p.m. as he was mowing his neighbor's lawn outside Watsonville in the Pinto Lake neighborhood. A man got out of a car, fired shots at him and fled in the car. Cendejas was pronounced dead at the scene. The Sheriff's Office has not said what motivated the shooting. No suspects have been arrested.

MAY 7: Shannon Kathleen Collins, 38, owner of Camouflage on Pacific Avenue was stabbed to death on the 300 block of Broadway in Santa Cruz about 11:50 a.m. After neighbors called 911, Charles Anthony Edwards III was arrested on suspicion of homicide a few blocks from the scene. Edwards was wearing bloody clothing. A knife was found at the scene. Edwards, 43, is a convicted felon from San Francisco. Police said Collins and Edwards did not know each other. Authorities called the attack random and unprovoked and have not elaborated on the motive.

MAY 30: Fernando Martin Mendoza-Avila was killed in a drive-by shooting while walking on the Freedom Boulevard overpass at Highway 1 just after 6 p.m. The 21-year-old was shot several times. Deputies found a gray Honda later that night in Watsonville and arrested its driver, Alfredo Alanis Garcia, 21, of Prunedale on suspicion of homicide, commission of a crime in furtherance of a gang and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. Two other men, Christopher Herrera Bermudez, 20, of Las Lomas, and Rafael Zamora Barron, 20, of Watsonville, were arrested the next day.

JULY 25: Dominic Mower, 37, was shot several times inside his home on Prospect Street at Madison Street in Watsonville about 3 a.m. A 22-year-old woman also in the home was shot several times and is expected to recover. A day after the shooting, police arrested Michael Neal Miller, 34, of Watsonville.

AUG. 8: A 12-year-old Santa Cruz boy, Joey Mendoza, whom police describe as a documented gang member, was shot and killed on the 100 block of San Lorenzo Boulevard in Santa Cruz just after 8 p.m. Police have little information on what motivated the shooting. The teen was shot twice in the back and pronounced dead at the scene.